Continuing this series of recommended books to read is, “The Art Of Prolonging Life” by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (Note: the original German title was “Makrobiotik: Oder, Die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern”) written and published in German in 1796 and translated to English in 1797. This book contains the first use of the word, “Macrobiotics” as it is used today even the though the word itself came from Ancient Greek.

Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Hufeland was born in 1762 and died in 1836 at age 74. He was a renowned German physician of his time and served the King Of Prussia and was friends and contemporaries with Kant, Goethe and Schiller. Hufeland recommended a vegetarian based diet.

It is assumed that, while in Paris in the 1930s, friends recommended to Ohsawa that he use the “macrobiotic” word based on this book as it closely resembled Ohsawa’s dietetic approach to health and healing. Ohsawa, then introduced the word to his Japanese students. He and his students, including my parents, Michio and Aveline Kushi, later reintroduced the word to Westerners in the 1960s starting with the publication of Ohsawa’s “Zen Macrobiotics” and later with Michio’s, “Book Of Macrobiotics” published in 1977.

From the preface of the “Art Of Prolonging Life”, Hufeland defines and distinguishing the difference between medicine and macrobiotics which reads like anything Ohsawa and Michio spoke and wrote about:

The medical art must consider every disease as an evil which cannot be too soon expelled; the macrobiotic, on the other hand, shows that many diseases may be the means of prolonging life. The medical art endeavors, by corroborative and other remedies, to elevate mankind to the highest degree of strength and physical perfection; while the macrobiotic proves that here even there is a maximum, and that strengthening, carried too far, may tend to accelerate life, and consequently, to shorten its duration. The practical part of medicine, therefore, in regard to the macrobiotic art, is to be considered only as an auxiliary science which teaches us how to know diseases, the enemies of life, and how to prevent and expel them; but which, however, must itself be subordinate to the higher laws of the latter.

You can download a free PDF copy of this book from Wikicommons here:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Hufeland%27s_art_of_prolonging_life_%28IA_hufelandsartofpr00huferich%29.pdf

Much of what is written in the book is as relevant today as it was when Hufeland wrote it in 1795.

You can read more about Hufeland’s life on Wikipedia here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Wilhelm_Hufeland

Hufeland’s work, among others, served as a basis for the creation of German sanatoriums which you can read about here:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3667466/

Enjoy!

With love and tears of gratitude,

Phiya

When a unique and seemingly original idea is presented then one wonders if someone else had thought of it before. Such is the case when for years I had been exposed to the idea of the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the rotating earth, (yin and yang, according to Ohsawa or “Heaven’s force” and “Earth’s force” according to Michio) influences of life on earth. I had been under the impression that this was an original idea by Ohsawa stemming from his spiral model of the universe which Michio adapted and updated in his many lectures. And yet, the idea seems so obvious when presented that I began to wonder if someone else had ever thought of this idea as well.

Well, come to find out and after some extensive research I came across a book written by Arabella Kenealy, an Irish physician, entitled, “The Human Gryoscope” published in 1934. Just a peak at some of the pages and images led me to know right away that here was someone else, completely unrelated and unexposed to the macrobiotic ideas of Georges Ohsawa, coming up with a similar idea on what she called as the “gravitative” and “levitative” influences on life on earth. This book outlined, in detail, the effects of the rotating earth on all life forms from evolutionary development to the physiological and structural development of plants, animals and humans to the differences between the right and left sides of the human body and the brain and much more. I relished finding this book and kept it in my library for some 30 years but never got a chance to read it completely from cover to cover until just recently.

Like the book, “The Meeting Of East And West” by F.S.C. Northrop, which I also held onto for many years until I could read it, “The Human Gyroscope” by Arabella Kenealy was one that I wanted to take the proper time to read and relish and that time has come to pass as I have now free time to catch up on all my reading.

Similar to Ohsawa, Kenealy points out the simple oversight by Newton in observing the gravity of the falling apple by not wondering nor explaining how the Apple got to such a height in the first place. In her own words in the first chapter she writes:

GRAVITATION AND EVOLUTION

I

The Biologist and the Falling Boy

SUPPOSE that a biologist, like Newton, sitting in a garden, should see a boy, climbing for apples, fall from the tree to the ground. He might reflect that boys and apples both are subject to gravity; both small bodies being drawn by gravitative attraction of greater body, Earth. A minute later he might note a fundamental difference between the behaviour of the two, however. Because, unlike the fallen apple, the fallen boy picks himself up, and walks off. Apples, subject to gravity, are powerless to overcome the inertia imposed by Earth’s attraction on their little masses. Boys, similarly subject to gravity, are equipped with powers of mechanical movement whereby they are able, in degree, to antagonise such gravitative inertia.

Our biologist reflects, perhaps, that the main character indeed of living bodies is this their very equipment with powers of living action, by way of which to overcome such inertia as binds elemental bodies motionless. Reverting to apple, he finds corroboration of the thought. Because obviously, before apple had been raised to the higher position from which, in obedience to gravity, it had fallen, the tree of which it was the fruit must first, in resistance to gravity, have upraised its living structure to that higher level whence its fruit had derived the energy of position, or potential gravitative motion, empowering fall to lower level. Not living boys only are equipped with powers of physical motion, enabling them to walk and play, despite of gravity, but living trees are equipped with powers of the physical motion of growth, by cumulative processes upraising their increasing mass high above the level of the soil, despite the pull of gravity on every particle.

Lying where it has come to ground, however, save for the life-potential in it, apple might lie there until Doomsday, for any power it has to change its site. Yet, because of the life-potential in it, the seed, of which it is the casket, resists decay. And shed, this sows itself in the soil; germinates, buds. Our Biologist pictures the process. Bestirring itself, it swells, bursts its little fibrous husk and sprouts. It sprouts in two directions. Pushing up a tiny shoot above the soil, it drives a tiny radicle downward. Growing and still growing, its main developments occur in these two contrary directions. The little upward shoot becomes the uprising stem, ascending in the vertical ever higher above ground, increasing in mass, extending in length, expanding in girth; progressively consolidating in structural form. The downward shoot becomes the descending root-shaft, driving ever deeper downward, increasing in mass, expanding in girth, extending in length ; cumulatively consolidating in structural form. While from the perpendicularly uprising stem are thrown out radiating branchings along horizontal planes, in directions at right angles to its main line of structural uplift. From descending root-shaft, lateral branchings also radiate, and spread horizontally in the soil, supporting the extensions above ground in terms of balance, alike of physical posture and of nutritive functioning

Until at last the tree attains full growth and stature; its trunk flung high, its roots deep-driven, its spreading branches thick with leaves.

And miracle of miracles—now the fallen apple lifts a hundred bright-checked apples to the sun! - Arabella Kenealy

Similar words have been written and spoken by Ohsawa and Michio! And yet, without any reference to yin and yang, Kenealy explains the influence of these forces simply in terms of what they are.

Any serious student of Macrobiotics will recognize many anecdotes and conclusions that Kenealy makes throughout the book that were also taught in Macrobiotics such as, for example, the benefits of sleeping with one’s head pointing toward the north or the east.

What is obviously missing from Kenealy’s conclusions that Macrobiotics provides is the spiral model and the all encompassing role that food plays in all factors including the evolutionary development of the species.

Kenealy also arrives at the unfortunate and misguided conclusions regarding the sexes, sex-extinction and eugenics, hints of which also appeared in some of the sexist ideas and superior race (albeit through food) in earlier Macrobiotics teachings. (Note: I will explore more of this in my substack, “Study Macrobiotics With Phiya”)

So who is Arabella Kenealy? Arabella Kenealy was a physician and author who, in history, was unfortunately most famous for her anti-feminist stance and ideas on eugenics which were unpopular at the time and remain so to this day. Her outspoken anti-feminist stance overshadowed and led many to discredit her works including, “The Human Gyroscope”. (You can read more about her anti-feminist position here.)

So while I find her gravitate and levitative explorations to be uncannily in line with Ohsawa and Michio’s teachings she unfortunately sabotaged her own credibility by promoting her own judgmental and biased moral conclusions with regard to the sexes and the human race. Ohsawa and Michio’s work faced similar outrage and discredit when they applied their yinyang theories to the development of the sexes.

The question then becomes how do we continue these valuable and useful explorations into the gravitative and levitative effects of the earth without imbuing our own biased judgment and what it means for the sexes and the future of humanity? We will look at this in future articles.

Meanwhile, I share with you the full PDF scan of Arabella Kenealy’s 1934 book, “The Human Gyroscope” for you to read and judge for yourself regarding the merits of her work. Enjoy!

The Human Gyroscope By Arabella Kenealy

86MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

(Note: At the very end of her book she recounts some fascinating telepathic episodes she personally experienced, the likes of which Michio has discussed in his own lectures.)

Many thanks and with tears of gratitude,

Phiya Kushi

In promoting the macrobiotic approach to world peace I have always recited what I thought was George’s Ohsawa’s solution which was that the West, with its technical, scientific, and materialistic ideals and values must be peacefully united and combined with the aesthetic, intuitive, and spiritual world of the East in order to achieve world peace. I’ve also understood that the ideological differences he saw between the East and West and their lack of understanding of each other was the cause of great conflict and struggle throughout history with the most recent being that of World War II. It would only be when the two worlds come together and form a new and combined ideology and vision that world peace would be established in the future.

During World War II, Ohsawa blamed and predicted that Japan’s full embrace of emulating Western colonial ideals and methods would lead to its downfall. He actively warned that Japan could never win a competitive and materialistic war with the West. Towards the end of the war he was put in prison for his anti-war activities. In prison he nearly became blind but was released after Japan surrendered.

After the war, he resumed his world peace activities, joining the World Federalist Movement along with other great thinkers and leaders of the world, which sought to create a World Government. In seeking to educate the West of Eastern values and aestheticism he dispatched several of his students to the West, including both my parents, at different times and unmarried at the time, to become cultural ambassadors intent on creating the peaceful marriage of East and West toward the ultimate goal of creating one peaceful world.

My parents met in New York City and later married and had five children including me. They moved to Boston in the 1960s where they pioneered and led the natural and organic foods movement and the macrobiotic movement. Their ultimate aim was always to create world peace and in his lectures my father, Michio, often suggested books to read including, “The Meeting Of East And West” by F.S.C. Northrop.

After some 30 years of having both a hard copy and, later, a PDF copy of this brilliant book, “The Meeting Of East And West” by F.S.C. Northrop, written in 1946 a year after World War II ended, I finally got to read and finish it now. I’ve had this book ever since I first heard my father, Michio Kushi, mention it. Unfortunately for me, I never took the time to read it until now.

Having read it now, it has been a revelation to me. It confirms everything Ohsawa said with regard to the marriage of Eastern and Western values and ideals. Northrop cites numerous philosophical, religious, cultural and aesthetic examples throughout history and points out their limitations and failures to prevent destructive conflict. He provides clear and concise solutions for each case, drawing upon the philosophical and religious roots of major conflicts in the world and the lack of a wholistic view.

After reading it, I wonder if Ohsawa borrowed his ideas from Northrop or was it just an amazing confirmation of what Ohsawa already discovered on his own? I tend to think that both men came to the same or similar conclusions on their own and that Ohsawa indeed went further by applying yinyang dialectics and practical macrobiotics to his vision of world peace. Ohsawa included the influence of the natural environment, food and diet in the creation of conflict and peace, an idea that my father further developed, refined and presented in his book, “One Peaceful World” published in 1986, some 40 years later after Northrup’s book.

Below is a conclusive excerpt by Northrup in his book. These words are similar to theones that I parroted as having come from Ohsawa in my many macrobiotic presentations that I gave as justification for the macrobiotic movement, and its daily life recommendations. as a whole. Yet here it was written by Mr. Northrup in 1946.

Thus, providing the continuous intuitive factor in the aesthetic, and the systematic unifying factor in the theoretic parts of our nature, which make all men and things one, are fostered, so that the equally real and important differences between men do not lead them to their mutual destruction, it should eventually be possible to achieve a society for mankind generally in which the higher standard of living of the most scientifically advanced and theoretically guided Western nations is combined with the compassion, the universal sensitivity to the beautiful, and the abiding equanimity and calm joy of the spirit which characterize the sages and many of the humblest people of the Orient. - F.S.C. Northrup

I have taken the liberty to share with you my PDF copy of this great book for you to download and read yourself. I imagine that it may inspire you to study and research all the great philosophical and religious works of the ages as well as look at the history of art and culture in a very different light. We should all be so learned as to understand how we can escape the shackles of our past ideologies to transform and shape our future and eventually create one world of lasting peace. A key is understanding that opposites are complementary and are essential to the existence of each other. More on this in future articles here and in my other substack, “Study Macrobiotics With Phiya”.

The Meeting Of East And West

104MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Enjoy!
With love and tears of gratitude,
Phiya

I had the great fortune of growing up in Brookline, MA in the 1970s where there were several independent film houses like the Coolidge Corner Theater, The Brattle Theater, the Orson Welles Cinema, and the Central Square Cinema (which only showed one film, “The King Of Hearts”, for many years) around the greater Boston area. With the exception of the Central Square Cinema, they all held film festivals of all kinds from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films, to Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney films, to Ingmar Bergman films, to Fellini, Truffaut and Renoir films and more. I saw films like Abel Ganz’s “Napoleon”, Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet Of Dr. Calgari”, Sergei Eisenstein’s “Ivan The Terrible”, Fritz Lang’s “M” and Jean Cocteau’s haunting “Beauty And The Beast”. But the films that left the me with the greatest impression were the Kurosawa films.

Akira Kurosawa is considered by many to be the greatest film director of all time. The first film that made him famous was his 1950 film, “Rashomon”, with its ground-breaking non-linear narrative style that questions the subjective nature of our observations and experiences.

His most famous film is undoubtedly the three and a half hour 1954 epic, “Seven Samurai”, with a story and action film style that continues to be emulated time and again by other film directors.

Similarly, his 1961 film, “Yojimbo” also inspired many film directors.

Recently Spike Lee made a film in 2025, “Highest To Lowest” based on Kurosawa’s 1963 film noir, “High And Low”.

Kurosawa directed thirty films (plus one collaborative war film) and, with the exception of one, “The Quiet Duel”, I have found a way to watch all of the other 29 films online for free, mainly though the Internet Archive, a non-profit site that collects all kinds of interesting and rare texts, books, recordings and films. I have seen 29 of 30 of his films. The only film I have yet to see is the 1991, “Rhapsody In August”, starring Richard Gere, which I hope to watch very soon.

Below is the full list of Kurosawa films and links to watch them online for free. Click on the movie title to access the film. (Note: Once the film has loaded you may need to click on “CC” to enable English subtitles).

Kurosawa Films

Year Title

1943 Sanshiro Sugata

1944 The Most Beautiful

1945 Sanshiro Sugata Part 2

1945 The Men Who Tread On The Tigers Tail

1946 No Regrets For Our Youth

1947 One Wonderful Sunday

1948 Drunken Angel

1949 The Quiet Duel (not available)

1949 Stray Dog

1950 Scandal

1950 Rashomon

1951 The Idiot

1952 Ikiru

1954 Seven Samurai

1955 I Live In Fear

1957 Throne Of Blood

1957 The Lower Depths

1958 The Hidden Fortress

1960 The Bad Sleep Well

1961 Yojimbo

1962 Sanjuro

1963 High And Low

1965 Red Beard

1970 Dodeskaden

1975 Dersu Uzala

1980 Kagemusha

1985 Ran

1990 Dreams

1991 Rhapsody In August

1993 Madadayo

Enjoy!

With love and tears of gratitude,

Phiya

Macrobiotic Biological Evolution

Essential to Michio and Georges Ohsawa’s approach to World Peace is the natural biological evolution of humanity which they propose as realigning our diet and lifestyles to be in harmony and in accordance with the ongoing and ever-present order of the universe. They believed that the vegetable kingdom is the source of the animal kingdom and that the most advanced species of animals, namely, we humans, came to be by eating the most advanced species of vegetables which are whole cereal grains. The co-evolution of plants and animals where animals continue to evolve by eating the most advanced plant form is what drives the evolution of all animals and humanity. In this way, a diet centered on eating cereal grains, being the most evolved plant form, will naturally advance the evolution of humanity. This is why they recommended for us to eat whole cereal grains as our main staple. Among cereal grains, the brown rice was considered by them to be the most highly evolved plant form on the planet. Thus, if we eat whole cereal grains including brown rice as a main staple then we will naturally find ourselves to be in the most evolved and in harmony and at peace with the universe. Whatever comes next in the evolution of plants after grains is what we should consume in order to continue our own animal evolution.

Oshawa and Michio also suggested is that human evolution will move toward a greater awareness, consciousness and spirituality. Michio suggested that we will naturally evolve from “homo sapiens” to “homo spiritus” providing we continue to eat the most advanced plant forms. Michio also insisted that world peace will come about when the majority of the world’s population return to a natural whole foods diet centered around whole grains. He insisted that a peaceful mind and world can only be achieved through the biological change that occurs through eating whole grains.

Macrobiotics is, therefore, about creating inner peace by being in harmony with the universe and is an ongoing practice and discipline of self-discovery and one that each one of us must pursue and unveil for ourselves in our own time. It must be accompanied by a constant curiosity and appetite for life with an active desire to explore and discover who we are and what is this universe. In this way and as new generations appear on earth, this process will continue to repeat itself until the majority of us have reaped the benefits of a whole grain based diet. This will take a very long time. Michio estimated that the achievement of world peace through biological evolution will take at least another two thousand years.

As it is now, one individual, through their macrobiotic practice, may achieve Inner peace within their lifetime. Others may not. This variation depends upon on numerous factors and circumstances. What helps to accelerate one’s own evolution and spiritual development is to experience and confront great difficulties and hardships in one’s life. These difficulties include conflicts, loss, sickness, poverty, war and so on. The more difficulties one is able experience and overcome then the sooner they will find their own inner peace. Life teaches us to be flexible and adaptable at all times.

It should also be noted that not everyone is at the same biological evolutionary starting point. Though we may all be humans some of us may have more recently evolved from lower animal species while others may have lived and reincarnated as humans for a very long time and may soon be ready to move on to whatever comes next. We are all at different stages in our own biological evolution. The evolutionary process is continuous and ongoing and each of us are on our own trajectory. Also, according to Ohsawa and Michio, we can adjust this trajectory by changing what we eat every day. We can both evolve or devolve ourselves by changing what we eat. We call devolving ourselves as “sickness” or “disease”.

Macrobiotics Is Not Enough To Create World Peace

However, as I mentioned in the first part of this series of articles, macrobiotics is not enough to create world peace. World peace is defined not as inner peace nor peace with nature but as peace among and between us humans. Additional work must be done to make us peaceful with each other. Of course, achieving inner peace and harmony with nature is an essential foundation for establishing peace among and between ourselves. We can not create peace with an unhealthy body and mind. yet a healthy body and mind is not enough. Creating a lasting world peace requires us to look at and work on our relationships with each other. We must learn how to create peace in our relationships and with society at large. This means learning and mastering the art of language and communication.

What does it take to master language and communications? It may take one’s entire life to do so and even then one may not have discovered how to create peace in one’s own relationships. However long it takes, what is certain is this journey is deeply personal and individual Just as macrobiotic biological practice is also individually based, so too is our quest to establish peace in our relationships through the mastery of connecting and communicating with each other. This effort has been outlined in the previous articles.

The Seven Levels Of Judgment/Consciousness

We can also look at and apply Ohsawa’s Seven Levels of Judgment (or Michio’s Seven Levels Of Consciousness) as a guide to help us determine where we are with regard to achieving world peace. It should be noted that according to Ohsawa and Michio, only at the Supreme or Infinite level can we achieve a lasting world peace. All other levels will only create and temporary peace that will sooner or later turn into its opposite (the lower the level the shorter the temporary peace lasts).

The first two levels, mechanical and sensorial, is the domain of Macrobiotics and deals with our biological foundation and evolution. Levels three, four and five (emotional, intellectual, and social) deals with our relationships and the domain of language and communication. Level six, the ideological level, addresses the fundamental question of who we are and level seven transcends all previous levels where life is nothing but peace and freedom at all times.

Level three, the emotional level, is where most everyone lives and communicates with each other today. This is the world of love, heartbreak, anger, joy, happiness and sadness and so on. This the world where we try to fulfill our expected identities and roles in society such as being a good partner, a good parent, a good child and a good citizen or model for society yet we seem to fail no matter how hard we try.

Most of us live on this emotional level and we constantly struggle in our relationships. We struggle and wonder how we can create peace in our relationships, our families and in society. Most of us are stuck on this level and experience it like a kind of purgatory or hell from which we are never able to escape.

If we are able to transcend the emotional nature of our relationships then it will be through the study of language and communication on an intellectual level. Here is where we begin to understand how we communicate with each other. This is the domain of laws, politics and social influence. On this level we seek to understand what is the truth beyond our personal and subjective (and emotional) perspectives. We seek to identify what are our common and shared experiences and how, by our own actions, we can influence and change the world. The purgatory of this level is the world of law, politics, and economics. This is the domain where many people try to manipulate others to gain various advantages over each other. It is the domain of trust and distrust and any peace established on this level eventually breaks down and turns into its opposite.

On the fifth or social level, we now look at the dynamics of how we communicate and how language shapes our values and identities. We begin to understand the relative nature of our relationships and realize that we must change ourselves first in order to influence and change others and society at large. We recognize the limitations of our actions and influences and focus only on what we can influence and change. On this level we try to live by the golden rule and seek to treat everyone as the same as us. Our focus becomes not about truth and falsehoods and their effects but instead about equality, justice and injustice. We rely on the linguistic logic of just human laws to determine how we should act and behave toward others. Yet we wonder why others can not live and behave like we do. We wonder why they can not see what we see. Eventually this level requires the use of some kind of justified force to maintain peace. This is the logic of the perpetual existence of the atomic bomb. We ultimately build a society where we do not trust anyone but ourselves.

On the sixth or ideological we are concerned with the fundamentals of our stated identities and values. We understand that we are a prisoner of how we language ourselves and that everything we do will turn into its opposite. We understand and embrace the paradoxical nature of all things. We embrace both the nature of a phenomena and its opposite. We learn to embrace all. We conceptually understand that all is one yet struggle with our inability to realize our own peace and embrace our own shortcomings. We have transcended the trappings of our social reality and we understand the dynamic flow of the universe yet are unable to effect any change other than setting an example. We hope that the example that we set for others will help them with their own journey of self discovery. Yet we know we are also powerless to influence any change and that what we do will eventually turn into its opposite.

On the seventh or supreme level we embrace all and no longer are bothered by our limitations. We no longer subscribe to a fixed and limiting identity of ourselves. We may adopt any identity we wish as circumstances calls for us to do. We are no longer bothered by limitations of language and communication, or social influence and of the duality of nature. We embrace all and are at peace with all. Whatever we choose to do or not do we accept with full responsibility and joy. Whatever impact or influence we have on others we embrace fully and take full responsibility for our actions. We are free and we live life accordingly.

For Further Study

We can further break down the specifics of how we communicate including how we listen and express ourselves according to the seven levels of judgment/consciousness. These are outlined in the charts below and may be the subject of further study and inquiry.

Conclusion

Just as each of must learn to master our biology to find inner peace and peace with nature, so too must we learn master our relationships and how we communicate with each other in order to find peace with each other or social/world peace. Each of us are on our own journey of biological evolution. We are also on our journey of self-discovery and self-development. Every new generation must go through the same developmental steps of self development. With each new generation we can hope that there is a slight acceleration toward collective self-awareness and self realization such that at some point the will be a majority of us on earth with the know how and where with all to establish a lasting world peace. If and when this happens we may never know but at least we can be confident that our universal desire to stop struggling and find inner and outer peace in our lives will eventually collectively get us there. We can look forward to that day even if it may be several lifetimes away.

I imagine that, in the distant future, when we have completely adopted a society so completely immersed in the natural order of life and the universe that we would no longer have any use for words and language. We would intuitively and immediately understand each other even in silence. We may develop intuitive telepathic abilities and be able to communicate over great distances and even through time. I think we have no idea what living in an enlightened world of peace might look like. But we can imagine and speculate how wonderful it may be. Let your imaginations run free.

Peace to all,

Phiya Kushi

The Nature Of Words And Symbols

First, it should be noted that this essay on the nature of words and symbols is a self-referencing paradox as it can not be written without using words and symbols. This paradox is part of what defines the nature of words and symbols.

1. There Exists Two Realities

There are two distinct realities. One exists inside the othe…

Read more

Greetings Friends,

First, I am doing well and better than I have been since the last four months. My condition has stabilized and my energy and appetite are good. Further details about my condition and situation are forthcoming in my new substack, “Phiya’s Cancer Journey”. Details are below.

Second, I want to acknowledge and tha…

Read more

The people who inspired me the most over my many years of promoting Macrobiotics in my life have always b…

Read more

Speech Acts

I must acknowledge Dr. Fernando Flores who suggested I read the works of John Searles, Professor of the Philosophy of Language. John Searles studied and made a remarkable discovery of what he called are “Speech Acts” which are essentially what we do when open our mouths with an intent to convey something to another person (what we do with wo…

Read more

Read more

What This Is Not About And What Does Not Work

I would like to first point out that my explorations into the world of communications do NOT involve any of the following:

1. NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming or any other psychological approach

2. NVC or Non-Violent Communication or any other such biased and temporary application or technique

3. Any other technique o…

Read more

Introduction

The practice of macrobiotics is focused on our relationship with nature and the universe by paying attention to what we eat and adapting to the changing environment. It is intended for us to find inner peace, calm and happiness under any and all circumstances. The achievement of world peace or outer peace, on the other hand, depends on our a…

Read more

If we define macrobiotics as the study and understanding of our relationship with nature and the universe toward a goal of self-mastery of one’s own health and destiny then it is undoubtedly an essential foundation and first step toward creating not just inner peace but also peace among and between ourselves. A person suffering, physically, mentally and…

Read more

I created different substack sites with different intentions and scopes. While some content might appear to overlap, it is only because they are all an extensions of my own life and experiences. This article is to help clarify how they differ from each other.

1. Tears Of Gratitude

Sample posting:

忝涙 Tears Of Gratitude

Did Michio Kushi Levitate?

It was 1969 or 1970 (or 1971) as Michio sat on a floor cushion Japanese style (legs folded underneath him) with his back straight in front of a group of about sixty or so students in a second floor small room on Boylston Street in downtown Boston. Everyone in the audience also sat on…

Read more

a year ago · 6 likes · 12 comments · Phiya

“Tears Of Gratitude” is my personal substa…

Read more

It was 1969 or 1970 (or 1971) as Michio sat on a floor cushion Japanese style (legs folded underneath him) with his back straight in front of a group of about sixty or so students in a second floor small room on Boylston Street in downtown Boston. Everyone in the audience also sat on…

Read more

“Georges” is spelled with an “s” at the end, like Georges Ohsawa, which many English speaking people get wrong about Ohsawa’s name. Georges Van Wesenbeeck was unaware that his first name reminded me of the “s” in Georges Ohsawa’s name but I am sure he would not have minded and would have even thought it was funny.

I did not know Georges …

Read more

Read more

This is what Macrobiotics is about…the freedom to manage one’s own destiny by one’s self biologically, mentally and spiritually.

Thank you, sir! You inspire me and I am grateful to you!

Phiya

Read more

Yesterday, Trump, Vance and Zelensky(y) clashed in the White House. You can watch the full 50 minute meeting here:

Read more